how do i recover a lost file in my computer/ fujitsu-siemens life
book/ using windows xp professional. the file is a word file part of
my work i have tried to download some softwares that are supposed to
solve the problem it was too complicated. daliaeran@hotmail.com

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Request for Question Clarification by richard-ga on 24 Feb 2003 14:50 PST

Do you know if there is a mechanical problem (i.e. did your hard drive 'crash')?

Helloo daliaeran~

Windows XP Pro has a feature that allows you to restore your computer
to an earlier time period; this will recover "lost" files.

Go to START> ALL PROGRAMS> ACCESSORIES >SYSTEM TOOLS >SYSTEM RESTORE.
Select "Restore My Computer To An Earlier Time" and click "next."
Follow the directions as they come up.

For more information, you might check out "Restoring:" 
http://www.itworld.com/nl/win_admin_tips/11302001/ 

"System Restore:"
http://www.theeldergeek.com/system_restore.htm

and "How To Use System Restore To Undo Changes If Problems Occur:"
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/gethelp/systemrestore.asp

Good luck!

Kriswrite

Keywords Used:
"system restore" XP pro
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22system+restore%22+XP+pro&btnG=Google+Search

You can try system restore, but I don't think that its going to work.
System restore generally only restores preferences that you set up on
your computer and things like hardware drivers, not specific lost
files. At least that has been my experience.

To quote Microsoft:

Windows XP Professional makes it easier to resolve problems if they
occur in your system. You can use System Restore to remove any system
changes that were made since the last time you remember your computer
working correctly. System Restore does not affect your personal data
files (such as Microsoft Word documents, browsing history, drawings,
favorites, or e–mail) so you won’t lose changes made to these files.
Windows XP creates “restore points” every day, as well as at the time
of significant system events (such as when an application or driver is
installed).

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/gethelp/systemrestore.asp

System restore won't recover your document.

Correct, System restor will not restore lost documents.

This is a longshot, but what you may want to try is an undeleter. With
file systems such as FAT and NTFS, when files are deleted they are not
truly lost, the index is simply removed. Undeletion software scans the
hard drive for files that are not indexed, thus allowing recovery. It
may be that the indexd of the file got corrupted, thus making appear
to dissapear.

For more information look here:
http://www.techtv.com/callforhelp/answerstips/story/0,24330,2574865,00.html

Two fairly simple recovery programs are www.recover4all.com and
www.finaldata.com both have free trial versions.